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Here I Come

Some of you know about this and some of you don’t. A couple Fridays ago I was offered a job by Western University in London, Ontario. I initially interviewed for the position in between STP presentation sessions, tucked into an empty classroom at Queen’s, a little bit sweaty from running around campus looking for a quiet place to Skype. The interview was a success, I suppose, and I was offered the job a week later by phone call. After a number of discussions with some pretty important people to me (many of you read this blog) I accepted the job a week later.

Fee fi, fo fum, look out baby, here I come.

Officially, my title is Program Coordinator of Youth Outreach for Indigenous Services at Western University. Less formally, I am essentially organizing on-campus athletic events for prospective Indigenous students. It’s a pretty exciting opportunity and it comes with a shiny one year contract. It starts Monday. I have a U-Haul booked for Saturday. I have kept quiet about this job because I was heavily debating the logistics of making a switch at this point in my career. It wasn’t an easy decision. It left me unsettled and sleepless, and a little bit irritable; but I finally ponied up and accepted and away I go.

London is a cool city. I have said before that it reminds me of Edmonton twenty years ago: a sprawling blue-collar river city with a cool music scene. I have old friends in London, and that has made the transition a whole lot easier. And I know the lay of the land, and after moving from Edmonton to London, to Vancouver, and then to Kingston without knowing a drop, I actually feel like I know what to expect and that has given me miles of confidence. I am excited. I am energized. I am ready to work, make money, and start contributing to the local Indigenous community in Southern Ontario.

I know that this is only a one year position but it has made me feel something I haven’t felt in a while. I mean, it’s always been there, in a way, but now, it’s starting to hum in my ear like a low moan:

It’s time to start thinking about heading home.

That’s what it says. I feel like taking this position is the first step towards accomplishing some of the goals I set out to achieve when I moved away from Alberta over 5 years ago. And now, earning this position feels like I can start to set in motion the necessary steps to heading back home armed with degrees, experience, and maybe even a little bit of money.